Definition:
Cancer doctors use the term stable disease to describe a tumor that is neither growing nor shrinking. Stable disease also means that no new tumors have developed, and that the cancer has not spread to any new regions of the body (the cancer is not getting better or worse).
In contrast, doctors use the term partial response to describe a tumor that has decreased in size by at least 30%; progressive disease is used to describe a tumor that has increased in size by at least 20%, or spread since the beginning of treatment.
Also Known As: static disease, SD
Examples:
On Jon's report from his oncologist, he read that he had stable disease after his radiation therapy for lung cancer.
